Art & Design

Visitors are often wowed by the high standard of our Art and Design. Our creative and innovative pupils bring their ideas to life in our thriving Art and Design & Technology departments, with daily opportunities to showcase their eclectic skills. Art and design projects are often displayed on corridor and dining walls, and in cabinets, as well as in our very own on-campus Whitestone Gallery.

St Peter’s 2-8 Budding Artists and Designers

In Year 1, children read Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree and then transformed themselves into authors, illustrators and publishers, writing and illustrating their own extra chapter!

Throughout the year, 2-8 children studied seasons and created pieces of art inspired by the phenomenon of midnight sun and the talented artist Kandinsky. They explored the science behind midnight sun in colder parts of the world and used watercolours to create beautiful observational drawings of daffodils to celebrate the arrival of spring.

In design, children learnt about what makes effective packaging, and designed and created their own branding for a biscuit. They carefully thought about essential information on packaging and if it can be environmentally friendly. The designs created were both innovative and beautiful.

Mr and Mrs Simpson-Daniel visited school to talk about their chocolate business in response to the children becoming entrepreneurs, designing brands and marketing their own chocolate bar. Mrs Simpson-Daniel told the children about the different types of packaging they use and talked about a very special chocolate with 0% sugar in it, called Wizard Chocolate containing honey and wolf berries for sweetness!

Children in Year 3 used their design skills when they had 80 days of great adventure across America, from San Francisco to New York, with Phileas Fogg. Along the way children were faced with many obstacles, including a very wobbly bridge, that required them to engage their engineering skills. They were amazed that the bridges were strong enough to hold nearly 300 counters! They designed wind-powered vehicles to help speed up Fogg’s journey, exploring the best materials and shape for the sail before seeing which one travelled the fastest and furthest. In New York, children enjoyed exploring how the skyline of the city had evolved over time and created their own pieces of art inspired by the shapes and styles of skyscrapers.

St Peter’s 8-13 Creative Artists

The Christmas term got off to a great start with a colourful display of collaged birds from hand-printed papers pupils had made themselves, proudly displayed in frames on walls around school. The term closed with a veritable forest of Christmas trees, J1’s first efforts in the workshop, and super-smooth ceramic penguins and robins which soon took pride of place on mantelpieces at home.

J4 carried out an exploration of a bottle-themed project, using a limited tonal palette and deliberately working against everything we had learned about cylindrical form and perspective.

The Easter term saw a beautiful display in the St Peter’s 8-13 reception area of J2’s exquisite Japanese dolls. The scene depicted the celebration of the cherry blossom in a traditional festival named Hanami (Flower Viewing). The children made beautiful clay models, delicately decorated with underglaze paints.

J2 loved celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee, with each pupil creating a crown and posing for a coronation photograph.

J4 explored the quality of watercolours and developed their understanding of how to handle the paint in their recreation of Raoul Dufy’s Open Window at Saint Jeanette, producing some stunning, subtle results.

Innovative Designers

In DT, J2s worked hard to complete colourful birdfeeders for the winter season and the J3’s prepared for chicks with their carefully constructed bird boxes.

J5 spent the spring term researching toys with moving parts before designing their own mechanical toys, coming up with a range of innovative ideas with ambitious plans for their movements, including flapping wings, and moving heads and beaks!

The J1 making of a fiddle toy (Feelie) concluded their workshop year with superb sculptural outcomes through the use of several workshop tools and machines. Their sanding skills were second to none with a silky smooth finish.

J4 used their sketches of a West Highland Terrier dog to explore intaglio printmaking. The children quickly grasped the technique and enjoyed mastering inking up to explore colour alternatives and blends.

One talented J5 pupil, Max, made an incredible full-size Iron Man helmet on a 3D printer, including an electrical mechanism that opens the front at the touch of a button. It was a wonderful example of both creativity and perseverance as it didn’t all go to plan but got there in the end.

St Peter’s 13-18

High-quality Art…

TBC Art Exhibition

In February we hosted an exhibition of Third Form artwork in the Whitestone Gallery entitled ‘TBC…’ The exhibition included a captivating and wild mixture of individual and collaborative work made by the Third Form, including drawing, painting, printmaking and ceramics.

Rebecca Appleby

We welcomed experimental ceramicist Rebecca Appleby to St Peter’s this year. Rebecca spent the day working with Sixth Form pupils and delivered a lunchtime talk for Art pupils interested in ceramics. Rebecca is based in Holmfirth and is rapidly gaining a reputation both locally and nationally. Let’s hope we have some aspiring ceramicists of the future…

Imagine 2022

In early July, the amazing Imagine22 exhibition marked the end of a long journey for the Upper Sixth and Fifth Form artists. It is testament to their hard work, creativity and resilience during the disruption of lockdowns that the show was such a resounding success. The work was varied and exciting, proving there is no house style at St Peter’s! The Sixth Form exhibited in our Whitestone Gallery and the Foyer where there was a breadth of media on show, including painting, printmaking and sculpture. For the first time, video was used to create an exciting final project that set the bar high for any future videography. Pupils’ GCSE work was exhibited in the studios and corridors, with a huge variety of talent on display. Imagine22 marked a fitting end to Ella Davison’s time at St Peter’s and of course, a tribute to Char Chisholm, who has left her mark on the department. Imagine22 was very much a legacy of Char’s enthusiasm, leadership and creative genius and we wish her all the best.

Upper Sixth reached Regional Finals in ARTiculation Prize

Well done to History of Art pupils, Ellie and Natasha in the Upper Sixth, who delivered their presentations for the ARTiculation Prize 2022 at the National Gallery. The judges congratulated Natasha for “a very well-structured talk, delivered at an extremely good pace which took us into the work and her interpretation.” The judges stated how Natasha had managed to give the audience a “bodily experience of the work” and praised her for successfully conveying her passion for both the work and the artist. Ellie was applauded for “a very clear presentation” and congratulated for “how she had approached the work and compared it to different eras and artists.” Outstanding work!

…and Award-Winning Design

Martha Engineers her way to Success

Lower Sixth pupil, Martha, received the prestigious award of Arkwright Scholar in recognition of her outstanding work in Design & Technology. Martha was awarded the coveted two-year scholarship following a rigorous selection process designed to identify the highest-calibre school students in the UK, who have a strong academic and practical ability in technical subjects. Martha will receive a dedicated mentor to support her through the scholarship, and potential undergraduate engineering scholarships as her career progresses. Martha created an independent investigation into the active air management System on the McLaren Elva. Martha’s investigations will be funded by the financial award from her scholarship, sponsored by ABB, a leading technology company and the official title Partner of the FIA Formula E Championship. Martha, who is currently studying A Levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics, English Literature and History, hopes to pursue a career in motorsport engineering. She said: “I was really excited when I heard the news. The scholarship is a huge opportunity which opens up lots of doors into real-world engineering experiences.”

Danielle Staniforth, Head of Design & Technology at St Peter’s School, said: “Martha has solidified her position within the school community as a fantastic ambassador for bright young women in STEM. Congratulations.”

Will, Meriel and Scarlett came through to the interview stage of their Arkwright Engineering Scholarship applications, having scored highly in their Aptitude Exam in 2022. They hope to follow in Martha’s footsteps as they progress to the next stage of the application. Will is interested in military technologies, Scarlett is passionate about biomedical engineering, while Meriel wants to pursue a career in design engineering. Congratulations to them and all students who applied and benefited from the experience.

Scarlett Scoops top Award

Congratulations to GCSE Design & Technology pupil Scarlett who took first prize at this year’s Technology Design and Innovation Competition at the Yamazaki Mazak facility. Scarlett presented her product – a pool safety laser trip alarm, that seeks to prevent deaths – to a panel for 20 minutes and showed the hosts how she had used technology, design and innovation in her project.

Scarlett won a £200 Amazon voucher, a day out to the Praga Cup race day, a Bronze Industrial Cadet Award and a £1000 investment to the school to help support the delivery of Design and Technology teaching in the classroom. Sami Ortiz, chemical engineer and technology and skills manager at the Manufacturing Technologies Association, described Scarlett’s project as, “a deserving winner”.

Mrs Staniforth, Head of Design & Technology at St Peter’s School said: “The quality of the projects at this year’s TDI Competition blew us away and Scarlett held her own against pupils across all age ranges to take first place. It was the depth and breadth of her research and professional delivery that impressed the judges.”

Scarlett added: “Winning gave me the extra push in confidence to tackle any competitions in the future and in terms of seeking internships and placements in engineering. Meeting Sami was so impactful as she recalled some of her own experiences as a woman in engineering which resonated as I was the only female finalist in the competition.”

The Big Bang

Congratulations to Freddie and Zoe who represented the school at this year’s Big Bang Competition. The pair were chosen to exhibit their work to industry specialists and visitors to Birmingham NEC. Lucy and Scarlett were also finalists in the competition. All pupils found a problem they were passionate about and produced well-executed products which were well received by the judges.

Freddie’s clip-on safety light received invaluable feedback and insights from the judges: “The project is an excellent idea, and I can see it being used on a large scale with some minor adjustments and improvements.’’

Zoe’s Assistive dog training device really impressed with the ‘’thorough testing of the product, taking into account all the relevant activities dogs do, which works really well’. Zoe and Freddie were awarded runner-up prizes for the engineering award and each took home a £250 cash prize. Freddie’s design was also shortlisted for an Intellectual Property Award along with Scarlett’s Laser Drowning Prevention Aid. The competition encourages entrants to think big and invent solutions that will help transform lives. Their amazing projects were put on display in the Monkey Cage.

Inspiring DT Exhibition

This year saw the long-awaited return of the DT Exhibition following the pandemic. Taking place in the Easter Term it was a delight to see student’s products set up in the Whitestone Gallery, showcasing the work of all year groups, in particular our GCSE and A Level students alongside Makerspace co-curricular EPQ artefacts.